12 More Undeniable Truths of Business
September 4th, 2009 by Bob Bly
Another dozen inviolate rules of business: Are there any you would quibble with, or others you would add?
1?If you are a self-employed service provider, you can only bill for about 50% to 60% of your time. The other hours in your day are spent on non-billable tasks, including running your office, self-education, and marketing.*
2?If you sell through affiliates, 99% of your affiliate sales will come from 1% of your affiliates ? your ?super affiliates.?
3?These ?super-affiliates? should be treated as if they are your best customers ? since in a sense, they are. You should not ignore your other affiliates. But the reality is, those other affiliates will contribute virtually nothing to your revenues.
4?It costs 10X more to acquire a new customer than it does to make another sale to an existing customer. Yet most businesses focus on getting new customers to the exclusion of marketing to existing customers.
5?A customer who is mistreated or receives bad service will tell at least 5 other people.*
6?Instead of increasing your marketing efforts on products that don?t sell, you should increase your marketing on your best-selling products to make them sell even better ? or as David Ogilvy said, ?Back your winners.?
7?Robert Allen is right: your business needs multiple streams of income. If you have a single profit center and that profit center dries up, so does your income.
8?To profitably market a product through direct response, online or offline, the price of that product should be at least 8 times the cost of goods.
9?To make money online, sell lots of different products. In Internet marketing, if your goal is to make $500,000 a year, it is easier to do it with 50 web sites generating $10,000 a year each than with one web site generating half a million dollars a year.
10?Whether your goal is generating leads or orders, always offer a free bonus report or other free gift. Doing so typically increases response rates between 10% and 100%.
11?Set up your business so you can travel if you want to, but you don?t have to — ever. Few things impinge on your personal time and freedom faster than constantly being required to hop on planes at other people?s beck and call.
12?Those who position themselves as thought leaders in their fields through speaking and writing are more in demand and make more money than those who are not perceived as recognized experts in the same discipline.
*=Thanks to David Krehbiel.
This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 10:58 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 4th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Another great post, Bob!
No. 9 really stood out to me. I know some people will argue with that one, saying it’s better to focus in one particular area and establish a niche following.
I assume you recommend keeping these 50 sites somewhat related so that you can cross-sell and generate back-end profits to all your buyers.
I’m actually making great money selling infoproducts in COMPLETELY different niches. However, I’ve come to realize that this strategy is flawed somewhat in the sense that I can’t cross-sell to these buyers.
September 4th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Lone: if there is low or no cross-sell between your niches, you are hamstringing yourself. The greatest profits online are made in using e-mails to your opt-in e-list to sell them on additional products in your line.
September 4th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
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September 4th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Bob: I definitely sell back-end products to my lists for each different niche. The regret I have is that I sold products in much different niches, which means I couldn’t sell the same products to ALL my lists. Instead, I spread myself out.
Of course, I suppose it’s all part of the process in determining the best niche for me and then focussing on that.
September 4th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Really solid advice. Lots of these really furthered my business sense. Thanks a lot.
September 5th, 2009 at 1:33 am
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September 5th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Another great post.
Your post reminds me it might be time to read another one of your books. I guess that is marketing.
I’ll probably order your ebook on ebook marketing as soon as I get through most of my current reading list.
September 5th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Greg: You are correct: it is a proven sales tactic: marketing with free content.
It’s similar to sampling. If you like the free samples of cheeses the grocery store puts out, you might buy one or more of the cheeses you tasted.
BTW, you can get “How to Write E-Books for Fun and Profit” for under $20 here:
http://www.myveryfirstebook.com
September 5th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I am working with marketing in Denmark and is searching for inspiration in the digital world. Thanks for inspiration
September 8th, 2009 at 10:12 am
“Whether your goal is generating leads or orders, always offer a free bonus report or other free gift. Doing so typically increases response rates between 10% and 100%.”
Question: If you are selling a free consultation (as a way to generate leads) is it appropriate to give a free gift or report” I.e. “Call me today for your free 20 minutes professional service consultation, and I’ll send you a free report or gift”??
September 9th, 2009 at 8:20 am
JA: Yes, and it will increase the number of people requesting the free consultation. As long as the report is on the subject of the consultation, the quality of leads will be good. Warning: do NOT offer a free flash drive or other merchandise bribe; this will result in a flood of people taking the free consult who are ONLY interested in the free gift.
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September 24th, 2009 at 5:59 am
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October 3rd, 2009 at 11:23 am
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